Labourers performing Clinical Duties: Theni GMC to investigate

Madurai:The Theni Government Medical College Hospital authorities have formed a five member team comprising of various heads of departments on Thursday, to look into the authenticity of a news report that claims that labourers employed on the hospital premises were being used to perform clinical jobs. The hospital is a 730 bedded facility and has a doctor strength of 176 and a nursing staff of 270.

The report alleged that labourers employed by the authorities were also deployed for clinical work like dressing wounds, administering injections and recording ECG’s.

When the healthcare facility began in 2004, about 204 labourers including lab technicians were employed through a human resource agency in Thiruparankundram. They were appointed at a salary of Rs.5,400 per month, inclusive of a provident fund contribution of Rs1,100. However, with the takeover of the new Dean, Dr Meenakshisundaram in 2013, most of them were thrown out.

Workers who preferred remaining anonymous told TOI that the hospital showed them as permanent staff, whenever the MCI inspecting teams visited the college for granting of recognition.

Presently the worker recruitment and management is done through Padmavathy Management, a private agency, which has in the last four months terminated the services of 14 workers.

Dean, Dr T Thirunavukarasu has stated that those who have been named to be allegedly part of this operation have vehemently denied it. Nevertheless, a five member committee constituted from departments of surgery, anesthesia and medicine is supposed to look into the issue and present their findings. The hospital also plans to sensitize its nursing staff and doctors against indulging in practices, which are against the spirit of medical ethics.